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I don't know why, but I don't think Robin Benway is that funny. Every review of her books mentions how hilarious she is, but her books don't make me laugh. At least, not so much that I notice it.
It took me awhile to get into THE EXTRAORDINARY SECRETS OF APRIL, MAY & JUNE. The book switches between the sisters' points of view and I only enjoyed April at first. She's the oldest, super uptight, and has been trying to act as a third parent since their parents divorced. May, conversely, has been acting out and letting her schoolwork suffer since she was closest to their dad. June just wants to be popular. I warmed up to June a little by the end, but remained fairly cold to May.
June doesn't have a relationship arc, but April and May do. April falls for Julian, the boy with the locker next to hers who she didn't speak to until she saved him from a falling light and saw a vision of them making out. I would've liked them, but as Julian frequently tells her, April acts psycho around him. It's like the reverse TWILIGHT. Shallowly drawn boy goes out with a possibly deranged girl. As for May and Henry, I did like them. Henry tutors May in European history while they snark at each other. Their conversations are fairly funny, actually.
Personally, I did like THE EXTRAORDINARY SECRETS OF APRIL, MAY & JUNE. I just have an odd resistance to liking it because most people love it and I just didn't feel like it was a love book. It was amusing enough but forgettable.
Just a quick question:
I read the ARC and was going to check the final before I wrote this review, but never could get ahold of a copy. So I must ask if this gaffe in Chapter 10 was fixed:
He rubbed his hand over his hat. "This is my brother's hat, by the way."I can't decide whether it was a mistake or if Julian lied to April and I'm supposed to read something into that. And it could be different in the final so I definitely can't analyze it.
. . . "But I did steal it from my brother when I went to visit him last year."
. . .
"Well, you must be an only child," I said to him. "Seeing as how you have the emotional capability of a gopher."
Julian smirked. "Guilty as charged, except for the gopher part."
Regarding the inconsistency - they did change it. Julian now says that it's his ex-friend's hat. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome - thanks! That's the trouble with ARCs.
ReplyDeleteInteresting review. :)
ReplyDelete